Hi Karen,

The only difference in nucleation technique has so far been that the Chinese used somewhat larger tissue grafts which means that the pearl sac closed faster and thus the actual cultivation time was longer and the pearl sacs had a slightly higher concentration of cell clusters that secrete supersaturated calcium carbonate solution resulting in marginally greater nacre thickness over the same cultivation period. The continental Asian pinctada scallop/mussel (not oyster) is pinctada cheminitzii which produces the same nacre as the Japanese pinctada (fucata) martensii. Pinctada chemitzii cultured PPBs tend to be lighter and occur in more attractive colors (white, cream, lavender, silver, yellow, and mint green) with less beige and staining. As such, they do not need to be bleached and dyed as much as Japanese pinctada (fucata) martensii cultured PPBs. However, these differences are so minute as to be academic.

Zeide